Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

It’s time for a Halloween cruise!

Episode 3.8 “Play by Play/Cindy/What’s A Brother For?”

(Dir by James Sheldon and George Tyne, originally aired on October 27th, 1979)

Yes, this episode does feature the Love Boat’s annual Halloween cruise but sadly, it doesn’t do much with the theme.  Last season’s Halloween cruise featured Vincent Price as an illusionist.  This season, there is a costume ball but it’s mostly just there so that the show can do a take off on Cinderella.

Cindy (Melissa Sue Anderson) is a shy girl who boards the ship with her wicked stepmother (Carolyn Jones) and her two less-than appealing step-sisters (Ronda Bates and Lila Kent).  While the stepmother tries to find an eligible bachelor for either one of her biological daughters, Cindy is expected to stay in the cabin and do the laundry.  However, Gopher hears Cindy singing Witchcraft and decides that Cindy simply has to sing for “the prince of pop,” Preston Maddox (Frank Sinatra, Jr., who looks like a cross between his father and Jerry Lewis).  However, how can Cindy escape from the cabin?  Gopher arranges for her to go to the costume ball and he even steals Julia’s Cinderella costume so Cindy can go incognito.  Cindy impresses Preston but, when Julie sees that Cindy is wearing her costume, Cindy makes a run for it.  She leaves behind one glass slipper and …. well, you know where this is going, right?  As everyone disembarks in Los Angeles, Preston has them try to on the slipper.  Cindy, however, doesn’t have to try on the slipper to prove her identity.  She just has to start singing Witchcraft.  By the end of the episode, you’ll wonder if Cindy knows any other songs.

While all that is going on, Bud Pomeroy (Christopher George) and Peggy Rossmore (Lynda Day George) are two sportscasters who work together but actually dislike each other.  Peggy thinks Bud is a chauvinist and Bud thinks that Peggy was only hired for her looks.  They decide to compete in a series of athletic events to determine who will stay at their station and who will quit.  Bud wins at arm wrestling.  Peggy wins a 5-mile race around the ship.  To determine their third event, Peggy randomly draws a piece of paper from Captain Stubing’s hat and discovers that the next competition will be weight-lifting!  When Bud throws his back out, it looks like Cindy is going to win but then Cindy asks Bud to stay and they discover that they actually love each other.  Yay!  Neither the story nor the characters were that interesting but Christopher George and Lynda Day George were married in real life and they made an attractive couple.

Finally, Tom Benton (Tom Hallick) has devoted his entire life to looking after his brother, Matt (Patrick Wayne), who uses crutches.  When Tom meets and falls in love with Kris (Joan Van Ark), Matt realizes that it is time for Tom to move on and find some happiness of his own.

For the most part, this was a typically pleasant episode of The Love Boat but, as a Halloween episode, it was a major disappointment.  They should have had some fun with season but, unfortunately, they didn’t.  This was like going on a Christmas cruise and not getting any presents.